


Loyalty

by thegriffin88



Series: Handler Chronicles [9]
Category: Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Drinking & Talking, Gen, Like A Lot A Lot, Loki makes no appearance here keep scrolling, but mostly talking, serious conversation about altruistic things, that's a theme I touch on a lot, the Victor/Doom dichotomy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-17 20:47:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18106175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegriffin88/pseuds/thegriffin88
Summary: Handler invades Amara's house to have some real talk with her about their mutual friend.





	Loyalty

This takes place in between the events of the end of Infamous Iron Man and The Search for Tony Stark

 

 

                Amara hadn’t even closed the door again when she nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden voice.

                “Hiiiii…”

                She spun around to see a short woman in a pinstripe suit on her couch, waving at her and smiling. She went for the side pocket of her coat.

                “Please don’t shoot me! He told me you have a gun and I’d rather not get shot. People tell me it hurts.” the woman said, her grin faltering slightly.

                “Who’s ‘he’? Who are you for that matter?” Amara snapped.

                “Just relax. I’m not here to hurt you I swear it. My name is Handler. I’m an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

                “Oh I’ve had plenty to do with S.H.I.E.L.D.!”

                “I’m not here on S.H.I.E.L.D. business!” Handler cried, “I’m here about a mutual friend!”

                “A mutual friend?”

                “Yeah, think about it for a second. Square shoulders, nice baritone, total brainiac, tilts his head a bit when he laughs…” Handler creased her brow for a second, “Oh, and really nice cheekbones.”

                “…You’re here about Victor? You know Victor?” Amara replied.

                “Oh yeah, we’ve known each other for years.” Handler beamed.

                “How does a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent know Dr. Doom?”

                “How about you take a seat and we can talk about it?”

                Amara sighed and stopped reaching for her gun. “Fine. Do you want anything to drink?”

                “You are quite the gracious host, Doctor.” Handle smiled as she sipped her wine.

                “And you were about to tell me how you know Victor.”

                Handler chuckled. “Cutting the small talk. I like it. I’ve known Victor a very long time. I think…yeah about a decade this year. I’m a sort of…analyst for S.H.E.I.L.D.; I make it my business to know the business of every powered man woman and child out there. So naturally I made one of my first projects getting to know the infamous Dr. Doom, Dictator of Latveria.” she wiggled her fingers mockingly. “I pretty much camped at the border until he let me in. I still don’t know why but I think he was just so damn curious he couldn’t ignore me. But that’s how I ended up spending an entire year in Latveria and how we got to know each other. A good part of that was learning to read him without seeing his face. It’s why I have trouble describing him, actually; I’m still not used to actually seeing him emote.”

                “So…what has he told you about me? Clearly you wouldn’t be here unless he told you something about me.” Amara asked.

                Handler gave a smirk. “Well he told me you shot him. I’m not mad by the way I actually fell out of my chair laughing. That was a great move. But yes he told me about you, just that he had taken an interest in you and what your first name was.”

                “Victor said he respected my privacy.” Amara glowered.

                “And he does! He does! But he wants you to be safe too! My connections don’t extend solely to S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers.” she held up her right hand, on which was a petite but very clear wedding ring. “Going on five years now I’ll have been married to the best mage in the universe, Loki of Asgard.”

                “Y-You’re married to Loki?”

                “Yup! And he’s a total sweetheart once you get to know him. Sure, he has his tendencies but he just needs a good outlet for them. Victor was at my Earth wedding you know.” Handler smiled. “But yeah, my ties to Loki and various other people on Earth and other planets is why Victor told me about you. It was his way of asking me to help protect you. In a very nonintrusive way I like my independence as much as you do. The thing is, I know he did that because you’re shutting him out.”

                “You’re going to tell me not to? My life was peaceful before I met Victor. It was nice! I wasn’t looking over my shoulder all the time!” Amara snapped.

                “I know; and I’m sorry. I wish I could give you that life back, but I can’t. You’re in it now, there’s no returning. But it doesn’t mean you can’t have a nice life still.” Handler replied.

                “Are you going to tell me to move in with him or something?” Amara huffed.

                “No. But I am going to ask you to think about maybe not cutting him out of your life completely, even if that means having to deal with the occasional magical and or superhero bullshit.”

                “Oh, give me one good reason.”

                “Because he’s loyal, nearly to a fault.” Handler said with a soft smile. “Victor is one of the most loyal people on this planet, he would fight and die for you if you asked him to. He’d protect you with his life. He just doesn’t extend that loyalty to just anyone, not even to me.”

                “You said you’ve known him for ten years.”

                “Yeah, and all ten of those years we were on opposite sides. We had an agreement: if we got in each other’s way we’d do what we had to to complete our goals, even if it meant hurting or even killing one another.”

                “And you were still friends?”

                “I’ve sent him a Christmas gift every single year! Unreciprocated, of course, but he’s never declared war on New Jersey about it so…yeah, we’re still friends.”

                “I don’t…you’re asking me to trust Dr. Doom.”

                “No. I’m asking you to trust Victor. I’m not friends with Doom, I’m friends with Victor. Doom is…you could almost treat him like another personality. Doom wants to conquer the world, Victor wants to build a better one. I don’t know exactly what happened on Doomworld, Victor’s not telling me, but I’m hoping he left Doom there for good. I’m hoping that all I’ll ever see these days is my best friend Victor. And, I kinda hope I’ll be seeing you, too.”

                Handler drained her glass and stood up.

                “It was great meeting you, Amara. I hope you’ll consider what I’ve told you. If you ever want to talk, hit me up, my information’s been beamed into your phone already. I’ve got lots of great stories!” she grinned.

                Then, she held her right hand up and spoke into her wedding ring.

                “I’m done here hon, if you could get me back home that’d be great.”

                Amara watched as green lights began to swirl around Handler who gave her one last smile and a wave before she had disappeared into thin air, like some sort of weird, suit wearing fairy.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wanting to write this since that scene in the middle of The Search for Tony Stark. At this point in the timeline Handler does not know that Amara is carrying Victor's child, he would definitely not tell her that. I'm incredibly interested to see where that plot point goes, to see where they'll take his character.


End file.
